Enactus Windsor steals show at Regional Exposition

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Last week, 60 members of the Enactus Windsor team attended the Enactus Central Canada Regionals Competition. Through four presentations centring around Youth Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, Financial Education, and Environmental Sustainability, the team was able to share how they are making an impact through social enterprises in the Windsor and international communities. The teams have been preparing for several months for this event, guided by presentations coach Meaghen Quinn, and were able to achieve success at the exposition.

Windsor took home first place in both the Capital One Financial Education Challenge and the Scotiabank Youth Empowerment Challenge while placing second in the Scotiabank Eco-Living Challenge and the TD Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Windsor’s Eco-Living team consisting of Darby Roland, Owen Coughlin, Ana Stupar, and Michael Diana presented on The Liberty Project. This is a social enterprise that provides professional one-on-one consulting to survivors of human trafficking, addiction and trauma. This project provides these women with a living wage, making reusable sanitary pads. The pads are distributed to women in underdeveloped countries. Enactus Windsor was able to provide 600 women in underdeveloped nations with 1,200 reusable pads, divert over 38,000 pounds of waste, and has provided environmental education to over 800 people locally and internationally.

The Financial Education team also showcased The Liberty Project. This team was made up of Michael Desantis, Adam Scholl, Emilie Weidl, and Moneek Ashat. In this presentation, the financial education provided to the survivors was highlighted. Clients are taught lessons in financial fundamentals, such as debt management, expense tracking, and budgeting. Enactus Windsor has also partnered with the Sandwich Teen Action Group to teach 10 at-risk girls social and financial literacy skills. Through the Liberty Project, Enactus empowered 8 survivors and 10 young girls by reducing financial stress and provided our first two clients with $5,400 in income.

Enactus Windsor’s Entrepreneurship team consisting of Bianca Dam, Zeenat Hirani, Zaynab Panjvani, Erika Ngujo and Shhed Elkum showcased how Enacus empower newcomers in the city of Windsor through entrepreneurship. In Windsor, 250,000 newcomers will land in Canada this year, and roughly 60,000 will live in poverty. These needs inspired us to create CookStart, a twelve-week one-on-one consulting program that empowers new and aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own food-focused businesses. Enactus Windsor aims to address these needs by working with clients through a curriculum of business fundamentals and providing networks to these aspiring entrepreneurs, giving them the skills and resources needed to successfully launch their enterprise.

Enactus Windsor’s Youth Empowerment team consisting of Josh Nicholas, Alexis Jamil, Joey Corio, and Ruben Tar presented on Youthrive. Youthrive is a 10-week mentoring and financial literacy education program focused on entrepreneurship. This year, the program reached 25 high schools and 19 grade school classrooms in Windsor/Essex area, as well as students at a summer camp for at-risk youth. Students create and run their own businesses with the help of mentors who walk them through lessons on business concepts such as marketing and budgeting.

The team was proud to be able to showcase the impact it has created in the community over the past year. Congratulations to all participants of the competition. Enactus Windsor would like to thank Trevor McFadyen, faculty advisor, for his support and guidance throughout the year.

The team would like to thank the Odette School of Business for providing the opportunities, facilities, and resources needed to achieve success at the competition, as well as the School of Dramatic Art for providing coaching and support for the team members throughout the process.

The Financial Education and Youth Empowerment teams will present at the upcoming Enactus Canada National Exposition, along with a Nationals Team, with Enactus teams from all over the country attending as well. The competition is set for the dates between May 14th – May 16th, in Toronto.